Harry Potter Shrunken Head

This is a shrunken head inspired by Harry Potter….

After seeing the shrunken head in the Knight Bus on Harry Potter I couldn’t help but want to own one. But as ever, if I want something I prefer to make it when possible! I thought this would be a fun project for the kids too.

The first step was to make the heads. I used Das Air Dry Clay which was perfect for the job. It has plenty of worktime and drys solid after a couple of days. I forgot to get a picture of the heads after we first made them, but here is a picture of the kids two and mine half painted…

Shrunken heads – Henry’s, Ruby’s and mine

First paint….

I used the old favourite Raw Sienna Acrylic paint for the face, I added some darker areas in the nostrils, mouth and behind the eyelids. For some extra depth I used Burnt Sienna. The raw sienna on the white clay gives the shrunken head a real old skin look.

Hair and wire…

After the initial paint I used some fine wire and glued it into the holes I had left. I then glued some hair onto the head… the hair is my wife’s hair from a hairbrush. Kinda gross, but for me that adds to the gruesomeness of the head! I then painted in some extra detail to make it look like the head bled when it was wired etc.

Almost complete

After adding a few more wires to simulate the sewn up eyes and mouth I added some more fine detail including some PVA glue in areas to give a shine where the skin had shrunk. I absolutely love the final shrunken head. Final steps… I’ll probably add some more hair to it so it can be hung up suspended from the hair.

Harry Potter Shrunken Head Completed

After adding some more hair to the head, including some on the eyebrows, I also added a couple more wires to the eyes. I’m really happy with the look of the final shrunken head, its a bit more gruesome than the Harry Potter one, but I prefer it for this reason. My wife hates it, mainly because I used her hair! My stepson plans to display this on his wall.